Pare

(4), v. t. [imp. & p. p. PARED; p. pr. & vb. n. PARING.] [Fr. parer, to pare, as a horse’s hoofs, to dress or curry, as leather, to clear, as anchors, cables, to parry, ward off, from Lat. parare, to prepare; It. parare, to dress, trim out, parry, ward off, Sp. & Pg. parar, to prepare, parry, ward off, stop, Pg. aparar, to pare, to parry, Pr. parar, to prepare, deck, present, offer.]

1. To cut off, as the superficial substance or extremities of a thing; to shave off with a sharp instrument; as, to pare an apple or an orange; to pare the nails; to pare a horse’s hoof.
2. To diminish by little and little.

The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy. Bacon. When pare is followed by the thing diminished, the noun is in the objective case; as, to pare the nails. When the thing separated is the object, pare is followed by off or away; as, to pare off the rind of fruit; to pare away redundancies.